*BEACON SPORTS
Weather puts seasons on hold
The snowstorm that Eric residents awoke to on Sunday morning put a
damper on the women's softball team's plans for the week ahead. The
Lady Lions were to travel south to take on the Thiel Lady Tomcats on
April 4 but the foot and a half of snow resulted in dangerous travel con
ditions and forced the ladies to stay at home.
The game was a non-conference match-up to help the team prepare for
the conference games ahead. Now that the final few non-conference
games are cancelled, the ladies get ready to face off against the Pitt
Greensburg Lady Panthers for the conference season opener on April 7.
Pitt-Greensburg already has two conference games under its belt. The
Lady Panthers lost twice to Frostburg State University, making them 0-2
in the conference and 3-15 overall.
This weekend provides the first home game of the season, which will
be at the Behrend softball field on April 9 at 1 p.m. The game will be a
double header and is sure to provide entertainment as the blue and white
fight for their first home field victory of the season. A solid win at home
can provide a much needed motivational boost for the players and hope
fully help lead them to more victories in the future.
Saturday brings a very exciting and much anticipated alumni game,
which brings hack alum players to challenge the current squad. The
game is at 11 a.m. at the softball field and is a great opportunity for the
players to relax a little and have fun playing old friends and teammates.
Sunday finishes off the busy weekend with an at home double header
against La Roche's softball squad. The game is at 3 p.m. and is the last
time the Lady Lions will play at home for over a week.
Rain and thunder storms arc predicted for the rest of the week but are
expected to finish by the weekend. With sunnier weather and some free
time on your hands, make your way out to the field and support the
women's softball team.
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By Maureen Archer
staff writer
The baseball and softball fields have been tarped since early last week and this weekends arrival of spring snow has delayed the
seasons once again. With hopes of sunshine in this weekend's forecast, the baseball team mightwill finally play a game at home.
Winter weather weighs down women's track team
By Stephen Wingerter
staff writer
Last Saturday, the women's track team
competed at the Western Pennsylvania
Championships at Carnegie Mellon and
came out with strong standings. Coached
by Dave Cooper, one record was broken
and many more are on their way.
Freshman Erica Smith broke the school
record in the 400 IM hurdles and took sev
enth place with a time of 69.67. Smith also
participated in the 4 x 100 relay along with
junior Nikki Mineweaser and freshmen
Becky Gonzalez and Leisl Soergel. This
group finished in seventh place as well.
Soergel was tabbed to replace senior
Marlena McNutt who has been suffering
from a back injury.
The 4 x 400 relay of senior Claire
Manelick, Mineweaser, Soergel and Smith
Men's track team overcomes adversity
By Justin Bootes
staff writer
The Western Pennsylvania Championships proved
to be a cold and not so great place for a track meet
on Saturday. The men's track team placed ninth out
of 17 Division I, II and 111 schools.
Robert Morris took home the first place trophy
with Pitt coming in second.
The day started out cool with temperatures getting
cooler throughout the day at CMU while snow fell in
Erie. This wet cold climate always makes compet
ing more of a challenge.
Behrend qualified two ECAC qualifiers this past
week. Senior Isiah Meek qualified in the 110 high
hurdles with a time of 15:09, second to only Pitt D
-1 athlete Mike Wray. Junior Shane Rock sealed his
spot at the ECAC meet in the triple jump for the third
season. A jump of 43' 6" brought Behrend home
with a second place spot. Pitt's Kory Gross took
first. Rock's leap into the sand was almost a full foot
over an ECAC qualifying jump.
Five Behrend athletes are close to qualifying for
ECACs. Sophomore Dan Mitchell threw his javelin
163' placing eighth in the invitational. Senior Nick
McGrady threw just ten feet below Mitchell placing
tenth overall with 153'. The cold rain created slop
py throwing surfaces.
"The mud made it very hard, if not impossible to
plant, thus taking away a lot of power from my
HOUSING AND FOOD SERVICES ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
James Myers
Men's Tennis
Freshman
Cranberry/Seneca Valley
Housing and Food Service Athlete of the Week is selected
by the Sports Information Staff
finished sixth with a time of 4:16.55, a six
second improvement from last week and
the second fastest time in Behrend history.
Gonzalez has been working hard to
improve her times and the efforts have been
paying off with her personal record on the
100 high hurdle dropping to 16.48.
Junior Staci Banaszek jumped to a sixth
place finish in the high jump, but was
scratched from her best event, the triple
jump. She still faces lingering pain from
her knee injury at Clarion last week.
Banaszek was one of the best all around
jumpers at the meet, but must now focus on
full recovery from her injury.
"My knee and shins are definitely putting
a damper on my ability to jump well," said
Banaszek. "I should be good to jump this
weekend, but I am definitely not at the 100
percent that I need and wish to be at."
Last week's AMCC Athlete of the Week was
back at work this weekend, going undefeated in two
home matches. Myers and his doubles partner, fresh
man Trevor Dor ever Alfred on
Friday and 8-3 following day.
Myers also held singles match
es. The • . i *he weekend,
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off against Pi
Saturday and
The Behrend Beacon I 10
Friday, April 8, 2005
The Lady Lions have been working hard
to drop times in preparation for ECAC's.
As a team, they have been battling against
two issues: the practice facility and weather.
"Being that we do not have a good prac
tice facility to train on, a lot of our team is
getting shin splints and other injuries," said
Banaszek. "Also, along with that, we have
many athletes that are close to qualifying
for ECAC's and Nationals and having a
home facility to practice on would give us
that extra practice to get there."
This weekend the track team heads to Mt.
Union, where hopefully weather will treats
them better. The lions have already had
much success despite the practice facility
and the weather, but times will continue to
drop with as much talent as the team pos
sesses.
throw," said McGrady.
Fellow senior Mike Barlett put out a 1:59 half mile
taking sixth place overall.
The relay teams are also looking good early in the
season with the 4xloo and 4x400 proving to be
sharp.
Throughout the spring it hasn't been uncommon to
see a group of athletes running around in the parking
lot. Didn't our mothers tell us not to play in traffic?
There is no track on Behrend's campus but there is a
hard working track team.
"Penn State Altoona got a multimillion dollar
facility and they do not even have a track team," said
senior Tim Schultheis.
Behrend has a track team, but what about a track?
Where does the team practice? How does the team
practice?
"Its extremely frustrating not having a track on
campus," said freshman Brett Pollack. "When we go
to a meet to compete our competitors have an advan
tage over us because they have been practicing on a
track. When you practice on a track your shins have
to get used to running on that surface, so by the team
running on concrete, it doesn't help us one bit when
racing on a completely different surface."
"Yes I do think it will help us compete, especially
being an intermediate hurdler," said freshman Kevin
Shugars. "Without a track I have no way to set up
all the hurdles I need and so meets are the only place
I have to practice."
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